Rockingham County board backs Confederate statue

Published: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at 08:51 AM.

WENTWORTH — A near-capacity crowd gave overwhelming support to Rockingham County commissioners as they passed a resolution calling for the restoration of a statue depicting a Confederate soldier.

Supporters of replacing the statue argued that the monument is a veterans’ monument.

“Six hundred one Confederate soldiers from Rockingham County died (in the Civil War),” said Diane Parnell, the vice president of the Historic Preservation Action Committee. “That monument was put up for them. A terrible wrong has been done to them.”

Parnell was among about 80 residents who attended the Rockingham County commissioners meeting Monday night. The group heavily favored replacing the statue where it stood before it was knocked down in a traffic accident.

The monument had stood in the center of the traffic circle at Morehead and Scales streets in Reidsville since 1910. But in 2011, a Greensboro motorist knocked it down accidentally.

The incident caused controversy about whether it should be replaced.

The city determined the statue belonged to the North Carolina division of United Daughters of the Confederacy. The group collected $105,000 from insurance and decided to replace it in a less-visible location, a city-owned cemetery for Confederate soldiers.

WENTWORTH — A near-capacity crowd gave overwhelming support to Rockingham County commissioners as they passed a resolution calling for the restoration of a statue depicting a Confederate soldier.

Supporters of replacing the statue argued that the monument is a veterans’ monument.

“Six hundred one Confederate soldiers from Rockingham County died (in the Civil War),” said Diane Parnell, the vice president of the Historic Preservation Action Committee. “That monument was put up for them. A terrible wrong has been done to them.”

Parnell was among about 80 residents who attended the Rockingham County commissioners meeting Monday night. The group heavily favored replacing the statue where it stood before it was knocked down in a traffic accident.

The monument had stood in the center of the traffic circle at Morehead and Scales streets in Reidsville since 1910. But in 2011, a Greensboro motorist knocked it down accidentally.

The incident caused controversy about whether it should be replaced.

The city determined the statue belonged to the North Carolina division of United Daughters of the Confederacy. The group collected $105,000 from insurance and decided to replace it in a less-visible location, a city-owned cemetery for Confederate soldiers.

“Not all history’s pretty,” said Robert Jernigan. “Not all history’s good. We are who we are because of history. People are asking that you preserve what is ours so we do not forget where we came from.”

Several speakers referred to a report in the Reidsville Review that said the UDC did not offer to replace the monument in a new location but was told to by Michael Pearce, Reidsville’s city manager.

After a court approved replacing the monument, vandals spray-painted the words “Monument is coming back” on an auto body shop run by an African American businessman who outspokenly opposed returning the statue to its original spot.

Commissioner Keith Duncan floated a suggestion that the replacement statue be added to a Confederate monument near the county office. Members of the audience said that it would not be the same.

“You need to know where you’ve been to measure if you’re going in the right direction,” said Commissioner Zane Cardwell. “These people fought and died for your rights and everybody’s rights.”

Commissioner Craig Travis suggested that city officials violated the open meetings law when they talked to UDC members about moving the statue.

“We’re talking about a City Council that’s run amok,” he said. “If you don’t like what they do, vote them out. The cities need to be held accountable.”

He said that “any attempt to alter, or modify, or deny the existence of the past” is an attempt to deny the history of county residents. In the end, Travis said, the county can’t force Reids­ville to take its advice.